I had tons of fun during the second week of my internship at the University of Utah. I continued work on some python code modeling different lattice structures as well as creating models of porous media and simulating the outcome of injecting supercritical CO2 into it. As for my coding, I wrote scripts for sampling a cubic close packed structure (3D) using different methods – none of which were successful.
On top of this, I was able to go to the Energy and Geo-science Institute and was given a presentation on the institute itself as well as their largest project (In terms of $$$) called FORGE (Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy). This project has been ongoing for a little over a decade and I was lucky enough to learn about recent discoveries in hydraulic fracturing.
I was also able to perform some hands on work with some geo-phones that had recently been extracted – sorting information and reprogramming. Overall, the campus is beautiful and I have been learning a lot! Carbon sequestration and geophysics in general is very intriguing to me.
Then the weekend came around and I was fortunate enough to have my Dad and little brother come to Salt Lake City! We went climbing both Saturday and Sunday – leaving me extremely exhausted – and I got to lead several pitches. Probably my most memorable one was the fifth pitch of this route called Pentapitch (haha penta means five!). The pitch was supposed to be 5.8 but to me it felt a bit spicier, more towards the 5.8+ range. What made it memorable was the protection, or the lack thereof. Right from the anchors of the fourth pitch (which I had led as well) you had to make a couple slab moves where you really had to trust your feet. Once over to the finger crack, I was able to fit a stopper (very glad I trusted this piece). Then there was good pro every ~10 feet up until the crack ended. Then there was a bolt on the face and it was runout the last 20 feet to a tree level with the anchors. Very glad I did not fall and it was probably my hardest lead to this day! This was Saturday’s excursion – Sunday we went and climbed a three pitch route (which took five pitches because of my frantic gear placement!) called Outside Corner. I have been deeply enjoying my time here in Salt Lake not only because of how interesting and fun my internship has been but also because of the beautiful mountains surrounding where I am staying.
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